Masahiro Tanaka is having one of the best rookie years of all time

Yankees rookie Masahiro Tanaka picked up his 8th win of the year Saturday with a dominant performance against the Twins. Tanaka allowed four hits and struck out nine in eight innings, and New York won 3-1. With eight wins before the end of May, Tanaka joins an exclusive club. Only three other rookie pitchers have won eight games before June since 1958, according to Elias. Here’s how each of those pitchers finished the season:

Kazuhisa Ishii

Krista Niles/AP

Ishii only played in MLB for four seasons, but he got off to a scorching start with the Dodgers in 2002. Ishii won his first six starts and finished the month of May 8-2. He stumbled in July, losing four of five starts, but finished the year with a 14-10 record and a 4.27 ERA. The Dodgers bullpen carried Ishii in many of his games — he never pitched more than seven innings in any of his first 8 wins, whereas Tanaka has only pitched fewer than seven innings in two of his wins.

Fernando Valenzuela

Reed Saxon/AP

In 1981, Valenzuela won his first eight starts and had an ERA of .5 through the middle of May. He was named to the All-Star team as a rookie, pitched a complete game in the World Series against the Yankees that Fall, led the Dodgers to the title and won the NL Cy Young award. Over the course of his career, Valenzuela was a six-time All-Star and won 173 games.

Jerry Koosman

Frank Franklin II/AP

Jerry Koosman started the 1968 season 8-2, picking up his 8th win of the year on May 30th. He finished with a record of 19-12 and was named to the All-Star team, but finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to Johnny Bench. Koosman led the Mets to the 1969 World Series the next year.

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